In this Feb. 23, 2018 photo, Venezuelan citizens arrive to La Parada neighborhood of Cucuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela. Aside from providing health care, border cities are also coping with an array of public safety issues, like a rise in prostitution and groups of men, women and children sleeping on the streets. less

In this Feb. 23, 2018 photo, Venezuelan citizens arrive to La Parada neighborhood of Cucuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela. Aside from providing health care, border cities are also coping with an array ... more

Photo: Fernando Vergara, AP

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In this Feb. 22, 2018 photo, Venezuelan citizens hold up their identification cards for inspection by the Colombian immigration police, in Cucuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela. Venezuelans are coming in by the thousands in need of urgent medical attention as the country's health crisis is spilling into neighboring Colombia. less

In this Feb. 22, 2018 photo, Venezuelan citizens hold up their identification cards for inspection by the Colombian immigration police, in Cucuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela. Venezuelans are coming ... more

Photo: Fernando Vergara, AP

Image 3 of 3

UN official warns of humanitarian "catastrophe" in Venezuela

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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia urgently needs international help as it struggles with a humanitarian "catastrophe" along its border caused by a flood of Venezuelan migrants driven from their homes by hunger, a senior U.N. official said Monday.

David Beasley, director of the World Food Program, said the harrowing reports he heard from Venezuelan migrants makes raising awareness of the crisis an urgent priority.

"This could turn into an absolute disaster in unprecedented proportions for the Western Hemisphere," Beasley said in an interview following a two-day visit to talk with migrants in the Colombian border city of Cucuta.

"I asked, 'Why are you here?', and the answer people gave me was, 'We don't have any food.' And they said, 'Even if we had money, there's no food,'" Beasley recounted. "I don't think people around the world realize how bad the situation is and how much worse it could very well be."

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"Venezuelans are starving to death"
The number of Venezuelans crossing the Colombian border has become a daily flood. and this is triggering what the UN warns is a humanitarian crisis.
Fleeing their country hungry, many are finding Colombia is struggling to feed them all, and it needs more international help says the UN.
"I talked to person after person, from father to mother to child this morning, hearing the stories about how there is no food on the shelves. And we're talking 40 - 50,000 people crossing the border per day just in Cucuta. The Venezuelans are starving to death," says the Executive Director of the UN's World Food Programme, David Beasley.
"Returning means letting your kids die of hunger. That's why I'm here. Here I sleep on a mat on the floor. I have my fan, the few things people have given me. In Venezuela, I have my house, my mother, all of that. And one comes here to sleep on the floor for a plate of food. Because here you can find it," said one young woman on the border.
The sound of one hand clapping?
The Venezuelan government claims its so-called CLAP boxes of staples , indroduced in 2016, means no-one need go hungry but critics note distribution is tracked, and may be makng some six million people dependant.
A bag of rice on a hungry family's kitchen table could be the key to Nicolas Maduro retaining the support of poor Venezuelans in May's presidential election.
For millions of Venezuelans suffering an unprecedented economic crisis, a monthly handout of a box of heavily-subsidized basic food supplies by Maduro's unpopular government has offered a tenuous lifeline in their once-prosperous OPEC nation.
The 55-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez introduced the so-called CLAP boxes in 2016 in a signature policy of his rule, continuing the socialist government's strategy of seeking public support with cash bonuses and other giveaways.
Now, running for re-election on May 20, Maduro says the CLAPs are his "most powerful weapon" to combat an "economic war" being waged by Washington, which brands him a "dictator" and has imposed sanctions.
Belkis Morillo, a saleswoman, says she depends on the boxes but wish it weren't so.
"The reality is that, for me, there's no benefit (to the food box). I wish they would put the product in the supermarket and I could buy it every time I had the money and could buy it, so I could buy it when I'm hungry and I need to buy food because these days, we have gone through much hardship to eat," she said.
Breakfast of presidents
Stamped with the faces of Maduro and Chavez, the CLAP boxes usually contain rice, pasta, grains, cooking oil, powdered milk, canned tuna and other basic goods. Recipients pay 25,000 bolivars per box, or about $0.12 at the black market rate. Venezuelans purchase them with government-issued Homeland Cards, that keep track of who has bought the boxes.
That is a godsend in a country where the minimum monthly wage is less than $2 at that rate - and would be swallowed up by two boxes of eggs or a small tin of powdered milk.
Inflation, at more than 4,000 percent annually according to opposition data, is pulverizing household income.
Maduro's rule since 2013 has coincided with a deep recession caused by a plunge in global oil prices and failed state-led economic policies. Yet the worse the economy gets, the more dependent some poor Venezuelans become on the state.
Life in the South American country's poor 'barrios' revolves around the CLAP boxes. According to the government, six million families receive the benefit, from a population of around 30 million people.
Venezuelans, many of whom are undernourished, anxiously wait for their monthly delivery, and a thriving black market has sprung up to sell CLAP products.
Critics, including Maduro's main challenger for the May 20 vote, Henri Falcon, say the CLAPs are a cynical form of political patronage and are rife with corruption.
Political analyst Oscar Ramirez said the food boxes are an economic necessity for many people.
The weaponisation of food?
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Media: Euronews

As hyperinflation and widespread shortages of food and medicine batter Venezuela, rising numbers of its people are joining in an exodus that has set off alarms across Latin America. Independent groups estimate as many as 3 million to 4 million Venezuelans have abandoned their homeland in recent years, with several hundred thousand departing in 2017 alone.

Beasley, who discussed the crisis with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, said the ideal approach would have the United Nations and international agencies attack the problem by working inside Venezuela. But that is not an option for now, because Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly rejected offers of humanitarian aid as a veiled attempt by the U.S. and others to destabilize his socialist government amid calls by the opposition to oust him.

Instead, Beasley is urging the U.S. and other nations to provide financial assistance to Colombia, where the bulk of the Venezuelan migrants are arriving. He said Colombia's government enjoys the confidence of the global community while Maduro's does not.

Since the end of last year, the Rome-based World Food Program has helped feed almost 2,000 people in Colombia, working mainly with Roman Catholic charities. A more robust program is still in the works, but Beasley said it's likely to focus on pregnant women and children. He said it could include a range of approaches, ranging from cash payments to the delivery of commodities for feeding migrants.

The World Food Program feeds 80 million people annually around the globe, about two-thirds of them in conflict zones. It has been present in Colombia for years, focused on feeding those displaced by the country's half-century guerrilla conflict that is now winding down. It is working with the government to help meet its goal of eradicating malnourishment by 2030.

Venezuela's problems aren't being driven by armed conflict, but the crisis has the potential to get a lot worse, Beasely said. He noted the food emergency in Syria started off as a trickle but now demands U.N. assistance to help feed 6 million people a day in a country with a smaller population than Venezuela.

"Colombia has made so much progress in the past many years with peace and the last thing it needs now is for all that success to be undone," said Beasley, a former governor of the U.S. state of South Carolina. "So I will be expressing to other nations the severity of this crisis and why they must come to help the Colombian people immediately."